Irvine schools facing growth pains

July 29, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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Four new portable classrooms added to the Stonegate Elementary campus could allow the school's student population to grow to nearly 1,200 during the coming school year. JORDAN GRAHAM, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Four new portable classrooms added to the Stonegate Elementary campus could allow the school's student population to grow to nearly 1,200 during the coming school year. JORDAN GRAHAM, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

School growth problems

As elementary school student populations grow large, here are a few problems school administrators might face:

Communal space issues: A school with a sizeable campus always can bring in more portable classrooms to house new students. But, while additional classrooms can keep student-to-teacher ratios low, they can't expand the school's communal spaces, which were built to serve a student population that would fit in building's original classrooms. Schools that rely to heavily on portable solutions may find their libraries, lunchrooms, labs, gymnasiums, auditoriums and playgrounds overcrowded.

Traffic congestion: More students often equates to more parents driving cars nearby the school during pickup and drop-off times. Congestion can lead parents stuck in traffic to drive more aggressively, creating unsafe road conditions around the school.

Loss of community: As a school grows, staff and administrators may lose the ability to know each student and parent, and those who they know might feel they no longer receive proper attention.

"Smaller schools create a more welcoming environment," said John Rogers, a professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies who specializes in education policy. "They also create an environment in which people can operate in a more collaborative way through a greater sense of partnership."

Faculty development: "Even if you're brining in other support staff, often times it is difficult for principals to give up some of the control that they have," Rogers said. "Increasing school size, particularly in this rapid way, often means that principals are taking on more and more responsibilities. That may mean they have less time for school improvement efforts or working with individual teachers to improve their instructional practice. And that's a cost that shouldn't be underestimated."

When it comes to elementary school student populations, how big is too big?

Stonegate Elementary will put this question to the test the next school year when its student body is projected to grow to nearly 1,200 students – up from about 975 students a year ago. The anticipated increase has challenged school administrators to make changes that address parental concerns about traffic safety, education quality, communal space availability and staff support.

As new housing is built and Irvine's population continues to grow, Irvine Unified School District is preparing for the arrival of 8,514 new students by the start of the 2016 school year. Despite plans to open seven schools during the next eight years, the district has been forced to find space for these incoming students while the new schools are being constructed.

Stonegate and Woodbury elementary schools have been focal points for this influx, and the school board voted this spring to add four portable classrooms to each school, boosting the student capacity at each to nearly 1,170.

PARENT PETITION

The decision stimulated some opposition from parents, who said the school was already too large. Less than a month after the vote, Mamie Wraith, mother of two Stonegate students, wrote a letter to the board voicing worries about the impending growth.

The petition, which has received 93 signatures so far, explained the concerns of school parents.

"I understand that it is a done deal and it's happening," Wraith said, "so the next best option for our kids is to mitigate the impact. If the decision has already been made, they need to understand that these are issues that need to be addressed."

Sunita Rane, a Stonegate mother, said traffic congestion in the area has become so bad that she fears walking and now drives her two sons to school, which is just blocks away. Rane started driving her children after she and her sons almost were hit by cars on four different occasions while walking to school, she said.

Wraith said her children have stopped buying lunch at school because long lines in the cafeteria left them little time to eat. They now bring their lunch.

The petition also expressed parents' worries that the quality of education and the school atmosphere would suffer as more students enrolled.

SCHOOL RESPONSE

Stonegate Principal Stan Machesky said that when he saw Wraith's petition, the school administration already had been formulating how to address issues stemming from the schools' increased student population. Four days after Wraith issued her letter, school administrators organized a meeting to inform parents of their plans and to discuss further solutions.

Machesky said Stonegate will bolster school services and staff support next school year.

Increased student populations will bring additional instructional assistants, more custodial staff support and another office clerk from the school district. Stonegate will gain an assistant principal for three days per week. Another service line is set to be opened in the cafeteria to shorten waits. Concerts and school assemblies, which previously crowded the school's multipurpose room, will be separated by grade level or moved to outside venues.

Machesky said he will increase teacher supervision to address safety concerns in the school parking area and plans to meet with a city engineer and traffic commander to talk about the streets surrounding the building. Irvine police said no serious traffic collisions had been reported in the blocks surrounding the school during the past school year.

"The overall majority of parents felt relief that we were getting some support," Machesky said of his June coffee talk with parents.

TOO BIG?

But an elementary school with 1,170 students can be difficult to manage, even with additional support staff, said John Rogers, a professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies who specializes in education policy.

Rogers said elementary schools can lose a sense of inclusiveness when they become so large that staff can't know each student and family, and principals can't spend significant time with individual teachers.

"My general sense is that an elementary school of 1,200 students is an extraordinary thing," Rogers said. "It creates serious challenges to building the sense of community within the school and between the school and the larger community."

Stonegate's projected student population for next school year is more than double what it was when the elementary school opened in 2009 and is nearly two-thirds the size of Irvine High School's 2012 enrollment.

Wraith, who has children at Stonegate since it opened, said she has noticed the difference.

"It's definitely not as tight-knit," Wraith said. "My concern with having such a large elementary school is that at some point, the school gets so big that it begins to feel like an instruction rather than an elementary school. I don't believe kids feel as special when they're one of 150 second-graders."

Rogers said growth alone doesn't mean the school will lose its character.

"Is it impossible to have a wonderful school with 1,200 students?" Rogers posed. "No, but I think it makes it that much more difficult."

Stonegate Elementary ended the 2012-13 school year with about 975 students, had 1,105 students enrolled by June 17 and anticipates its student population to reach 1,140 by the middle of the school year. In the past, Irvine Unified school board president Gavin Huntley-Fenner has said that the board could vote to alter district policy if the student populations at Stonegate and Woodbury were to exceed the district cap of 1,000 students. The school board will meet once more before Stonegate and Woodbury begin their 2013-14 school year.

Populations at Stonegate and Woodbury elementary school are projected to drop beyond the coming school year as the district begins to open new schools.

For now, students, parents and administrators at these schools will have to adapt to a very big school.

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